Cimcorp will supply and install its Dream Factory, a fully automated handling solution for tyre manufacturing and distribution, in the new tyre manufacturing facility owned by Singapore-based global tyre company Giti Tire.
Cimcorp Group, a part of Murata Machinery, Ltd. (Muratec), will be responsible for the complete turnkey system – including not only all the automation equipment but also total system control, project management and seamless integration.
In the multi-million-dollar deal, Cimcorp and Muratecwill install the automated logistics systems for the new passenger car radial (PCR) tyre plant being built in Chester County in South Carolina, US.
The new plant will be Giti’s first manufacturing facility in the US and its eighth production site worldwide – Giti already has one plant in Indonesia and six in China. The South Carolina facility is expected to generate 1,700 new jobs and produce 10 million passenger and light truck tyres annually when fully operational.
Wu Zhicheng, General Manager of the Corporate Equipment Center at Giti Tire and responsible for the US plant project, commented, “From the beginning, we decided to build an advanced tyre-manufacturing facility equipped with the latest automation technologies. Investment in Cimcorp’s Dream Factory will ensure high throughput of high-quality tyres.”
The Cimcorp solution will take care of the handling and storage (at both constant and ambient temperatures) of raw materials – including natural rubber, polymer rubber, belt steel, bead wire and textile ply – and components such as calender rolls, belt carts, ply/inner liner carts, sidewall carts, tread carts and bead carts.
The automation technology will include conveyor systems for the unloading of the tyre-building machines and transfer of green tyres to the curing buffers; miniload automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) for green tyre buffer storage; and monorail transfers for delivery to the presses. In addition, Cimcorp’s scope of supply includes automation of the testing area, finished tyre buffers and palletising stations.
In this first joint project, Muratec will supply high-bay warehousing systems featuring stacker cranes for raw materials and components, as well as the miniload automated AS/RS for green tyres. All automated equipment – robots, monorails, conveyors, stacker cranes and miniload cranes – will be controlled by Cimcorp’s warehouse control software (WCS), which will ensure 100% availability of all materials at all process machines.
The automated handling systems will be delivered and installed in three stages during 2017 and 2019. Kai Tuomisaari, Vice President of Sales and Projects, Cimcorp, explained, “With Muratec’s warehousing and transportation technologies, we have been able to integrate key upstream components in the Dream Factory solution; they are a perfect fit for the handling of raw materials and components. Total control of the material flow and an optimised plant layout have allowed us to secure great space savings for Giti at its greenfield site.”
The Dream Factory solution is suitable for both brownfield and greenfield sites and Cimcorp has delivered automation solutions to seven of the top ten tyre manufacturers globally. With total control of the manufacturing process at each stage – including real-time data for production and inventory management – Dream Factory ensures optimum utilisation of the most valuable process machinery, such as the building machines and curing presses, to secure crucial increases in production capacity.